Brahma Sutras (Ramanuja)
by George Thibaut | 1904 | 275,953 words | ISBN-10: 8120801350 | ISBN-13: 9788120801356
The English translation of the Brahma Sutras (also, Vedanta Sutras) with commentary by Ramanuja (known as the Sri Bhasya). The Brahmasutra expounds the essential philosophy of the Upanishads which, primarily revolving around the knowledge of Brahman and Atman, represents the foundation of Vedanta. Ramanjua’s interpretation of these sutras from a V...
Sutra 3.3.10
10. On account of non-difference of everything, those elsewhere.
The Chāndogya and the Vajasaneyaka alike record a meditation on Praṇa; the object of meditation being Praṇa as possessing the qualities of being the oldest and the best, and also as possessing certain other qualities such as being the richest, and so on (Ch. Up. V, 1; Bṛ. Up. VI, 1). In the text of the Kaushītakins, on the other hand, there is a meditation on Prāṇa which mentions the former qualities ('being the best' and 'being the oldest'), but not the latter ('being the richest,' and so on). This,the Pūrvapakshin maintains, constitutes a difference between the objects of meditation, and hence between the meditations themselves.—This view the Sūtra sets aside 'on account of non-difference of everything, those elsewhere.' There is no difference of meditation. Those qualities, viz. being the richest, and so on, are to be meditated upon in the other place also, viz. in the meditation on Prāṇa of the Kaushītakins; 'since there is non-difference of everything,' i.e. since the text of the Kaushītakins also exhibits the very same method, in all its details, for proving what it is undertaken to prove, viz. that Prāṇa is the oldest and best. And for that proof it is required that Prāṇa should be viewed as possessing also the quality of being the richest, and so on, and these qualities therefore have to be comprised in the meditation of the Kaushītakins also. Hence there is no difference of meditation.—Here terminates the adhikaraṇa of 'non-difference of everything.'
In the same way as the meditation on Prāṇa as the oldest and best cannot be accomplished without Prāṇa being also meditated upon as the richest, and so on. and as hence these latter qualities have to be comprised in the meditation on Prāṇa of the Kaushītakins, although they are not expressly mentioned there; thus those qualities of Brahman also, without which the meditation on Brahman cannot be accomplished, must be included in all meditations on Brahman—this is the point to be proved next.